"A refreshingly vibrant narrative. At times, [Rapport's] political study could almost double as a travelogue."
—New York Times Book Review
"Highly readable.... [Rapport] has an excellent eye for the arresting anecdote or apt quotation.... He also excels at literary portraiture, painting quick but vivid sketches of well-known figures from Mary Wollstonecraft to Maximilien Robespierre."—Wall Street Journal
[Rapport] creates a richly textured picture of 18th-century urban life, and how it varied among the three cities... in [his] hands, the cities become players in the story, not simply backdrops for the turmoil of the Age of Revolutions."—Shelf Awareness
"[An] eye-opening comparative history.... Rapport's in-depth research into these three cities at war is significant, the similarities and differences making the story all the more fascinating."—Kirkus Reviews
"Rapport has combined academic scholarship with a well-paced, engaging writing style to produce an exceptional work of comparative late-18th-century political and urban history."—Publishers Weekly, starred review